


A Perfect Pines Christmas

by Edward_or_Ford



Series: Exposure AU [2]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: F/M, Sibling Incest, pinecest - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-18
Updated: 2017-01-18
Packaged: 2018-09-18 10:13:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9379883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Edward_or_Ford/pseuds/Edward_or_Ford
Summary: So when I first posted this story about a year ago, I wanted it to be a surprise that this fic is a sequel to “Exposure”, my story that I published the previous Christmas. It was a cute reveal near the end that this story and "Exposure" were actually in the same AU.But now, I am starting to write a new multi-chapter story that follows after this one, and it is beneficial if you've read both of the previous stories. So my little twist is now kind of messed up because I've lumped it into a series with "Exposure". Sorry about that, for anyone who hadn't read this before. Hope you liked it anyways!





	

Dipper Pines was sound asleep in his bedroom, enjoying the best kind of deep slumber. Exhausted. Euphoric. Content. Relaxed. At peace. The extremely satisfying sleep that boys experience after intense physical exertion and the release of oxytocin and prolactin into the bloodstream from the pituitary gland.

The sleep of a seventeen-year-old teen who, late the previous night, had quietly but enthusiastically had sex. Three times, in fact! Even asleep, he felt oblique pride in himself.

Certainly there were glorious and lustful physical sensations that his unconscious mental state recalled for him in his dreams. Sex is, of course, physically gratifying. But these memories were far more than just carnal pleasure. He had not just been making love: he had made love … with _her!_ The love of his life! His dreams were filled with everything he felt about her. His fondness for her warm and bubbly personality. His admiration of her optimism and confidence. His attraction to her passion for life and love. His near-disbelief that this astounding and beautiful girl could possibly love him back as much as he loved her.

His mind formed giddy experiences of memories of her. Gazing into the depth of her dark eyes. Listening to the adorable tone and cadence of her voice. Feeling the smoothness of her skin under his fingertips and palms. The intoxicating smell of her, always perceptible beneath the aroma of her shampoo. Ah yes, her hair! The taste of her hair, getting stuck in his mouth. It always seemed to get everywhere! Her beautiful long brown hair was always finding a way into his mouth when he was around her! He would “pffffth” and “thppff” repeatedly, and she would giggle at his fruitless attempts to dislodge strands of her silky mane from his tongue. He would grab at it with his fingers to brush it away, and as he wiped them to the side of his face, the corners of his mouth formed a tiny smile as he felt more hair cascade down onto his other cheek. The ends of the hairs swept back and forth, tickling his face, and he heard her muffled giggle of amusement as once again he waved at the …

Wait … What? …

Dipper groaned softly as his eyes fluttered open.

His eyes were greeted with a bizarre sight. It was a kind of cartoonish … face! A felt red hat lined with white fuzzy cotton sat on the top of its head. Immediately below swirled beady, glossy eyes with randomly bouncing black pupils. But most prominent was a wide, toothy grimace that was just … wrong! The edges of the mouth were prominently turned down, but its shape suggested it was also an enormous smile. And surrounding this was a near-impenetrable forest of wavy hair, filling his field of vision in every direction.

His sleepy brain lacked the comprehension to make sense of this. He recoiled backwards and screamed loudly in a most undignified manner, banging his skull on the headboard.

“ _Mornin’_ , Dipper! Merry _Chris-_ Mas!!” the strange apparition drawled loudly in an amused, exaggerated low pitch. “Time to git that sleepy butt out o’ bed!”

Dipper collapsed back down to his pillow, his chest heaving and heart still pounding rapidly. He shook his head slowly and rolled his eyes. “O-kaaaay … Santa Upside-Downing-Claus,” he grumbled. “Gee! I’ve missed you _sooooo_ much!” He pushed away a cascade of hair from his face, unwittingly starting to smile as he looked again at the grotesque inverted grin inches in front of his nose. “How long has it been?”

“Been a couple o’ years, I reckon’!” came the happy reply in its phoney deep-south accent. “Figured I’d best make an appearance this Christmas!”

Dipper’s twin sister Mabel was balanced precariously over the head of Dipper’s bed, holding tightly with her hands and legs to the beds’ headboard while suspending herself out over Dipper’s face. She had decorated her chin with a tiny Santa hat, glued googly eyeballs below her bottom lip, and pulled a woolen hat down over her real eyes and nose. She had years ago figured out that the effect of “Mr. Upside-Downington” and his Christmasy cousin worked better if most of her face was covered, and she loved performing for her twin even if it meant she couldn’t see a thing.

Looking up into Mabel’s “eyes” as they jiggled around, the last of Dipper’s stoicism evaporated. He laughed aloud at Mabel’s delightful irreverence, that she had the ability to be so charming and irritating at the same time. “We are _definitely_ getting too old for this kind of thing, Mabel,” he said with a smirk.

Several feet away, footsteps could be heard coming to a stop on the carpeted hallway just outside of Dipper’s open bedroom door. The twins froze in place, sheepish grins mostly obscured by Mabel’s long locks of hair. There was a short pause, then an exasperated exhale.

“Yes, you both _are_ too old for this,” came their father’s deadpan declaration. “Mabel, you’re going to give your brother a heart attack one of these times, if you keep scaring him that way. Or you’ll break the headboard leaning over it like that. Or _both!_ ” He continued down the hall towards the stairs, calling back over his shoulder in a tone that indicated familiarity with his children’s juvenile antics. “Now knock it off, you idiots, and come down and join your mother and I for breakfast. We’ve got gifts to open!”

“Yes, Dad!” called back the twins happily in unison, recognizing the playful amusement in their father’s voice..

Neither one of them moved. Mabel’s upside-down smile broadened even wider as she felt Dipper lift his hands to her face, brushing his thumbs over her cheeks and running fingers through her hair beneath her ears.

“Last night was incredible, Mabes,” he murmured softly.

“Yeah?” she whispered suavely. “I thought so too!”

She heard his head lift off of the pillow and felt his warm breath near her mouth. She pursed her lips in anticipation. Then she felt him stop and grunt in frustration, followed by the feel of his fingertips plucking the miniature hat and craft eyeballs from her chin.

“I can’t do it with that stuff staring at me, it’s like I’m kissing Santa!” Dipper muttered, drawing a sharp guffaw from his sister. Then the twins’ mouths melted together, “Spider-man”-style, their noses brushing against the other’s chins.

It was a kiss of complete love. Best friends and soul mates their entire lives, they had also quietly been lovers for over a year. They had both felt for a long time that they were made for each other, long before either had known of the other’s romantic interest. And as time went on, they knew they _had_ to be together. No matter the obstacles. They simply had no choice!

As Dipper’s tongue caressed Mabel’s mouth sweetly and gently, she went weak in the knees. Actually, she went weak in the hands and legs. She lost her grip on the headboard and collapsed unceremoniously on top of her brother. The twins flopped into a giggling, tickling pile, their silly laughter echoing down the stairs. After their mother yelled up another demand that they quit roughhousing and get going, they grudgingly released one another. Shouting back that Dipper was getting up, Mabel quickly stood and pulled her brother by the arm to his feet beside his bed.

Mabel pressed herself against his chest and looked up into his eyes. “Love you!” she said quietly.

Dipper leaned down and pecked her lips softly. “Love you, too,” he murmured back.

Then they reluctantly moved back from each other a step, and separately they went into the hallway. They shared one more quick, fond glance as Dipper entered the bathroom and Mabel headed for the stairs.

* * *

Dipper finished delicately removing the last piece of tape from his gift’s shiny yellow wrapping paper.

“C’mon!” groused Mabel. “Get a move on and _rip_ that paper, man! This is Christmas!”

“You do things _your_ way, Mabel, I do things the _correct_ way,” replied Dipper, shooting a superior smile at his sister. He was sitting on the floor, legs crossed over at the ankles in front of him and leaning back against the love seat in the living room as he completed pulling the near-pristine paper away from the wide and low rectangular box.

Sitting crossed-legged near the fireplace, Mabel placed her identically-sized gift box on her lap and cracked her knuckles. “Would everyone please allow the Alpha Twin to demonstrate how it is done!” she said primly. Then in an instant her hands were a blur, and the air was filled with shredded red gift wrap. As bits of paper began to flutter down towards the floor, Mabel sat triumphantly with her completely unwrapped gift.

Their mother cleared her throat from the sofa where she and their father sat watching their living room turn into a snow globe that had just been shaken. “Just remember Mabel,” she said smiling, “we all clean up our own gift wrap mess these days.” Dipper grinned smugly at his sister.

Mabel’s eyes widened as her attention focused on the front window. She pointed excitedly. “Look Dipper, it’s Elon Musk, and he’s bringing us a Tesla for Christmas!” Dipper’s jaw dropped, and as his head whipped towards the front yard, Mabel leaned forward and snatched Dipper’s unblemished sheet of wrapping paper. Immediately a yellow blizzard of paper filled the air, joining the existing red flakes that had yet to settle to the floor.

Their father laughed loudly as Dipper stared daggers at his very satisfied twin. “All right all right, you two,” he told them. “Enough already, just open your presents from your mother and I!”

The twins lifted the lids of their boxes, both gasping at what they saw inside.

“Ohmygosh!” Mabel squeaked as her fingers flew to her mouth.

Dipper’s eyes were wide as saucers “Holy shit!” he breathed.

“Language!” scolded his mother good-naturedly.

Dipper apologized distractedly without looking up. Sitting in the box in front of him, free of its foam packaging, was a hefty Dell Precision laptop, a pro computer as powerful as nearly any desktop PC. He tilted up the big 17” screen and marvelled at its size, wondering for an instant why his parents splurged for such a high-end portable workstation. Then he noticed that there was more in the box: placed beside it were two 4K GoPro cameras and a collapsable tripod.

He realized that his parents had not been as dismissive as he had thought when he told them that his goal was to produce a quality series of science and supernatural movies, a hobby he’d started when he was twelve. He’d always felt they didn’t believe him, that he’d grow out of his obsession with studying and revealing connections between the realms of the explainable and the unexplainable. But now they’d provided him with tools to pursue that goal! They’d given him a mobile video creation and editing studio. He looked gratefully to his parents, his face communicating the genuine gratitude he felt for them. “Thank you!” he said sincerely.

They smiled back at him, but their attention was also being pulled towards his sister.

Dipper saw that Mabel was completely agog. She was just getting over the shock of discovering a sexy new MacBook Pro sitting serenely in the box, all shiny and pure, so perfect she would have swore it was smiling at her! An ideal laptop for her creative pursuits! She had snatched it up and was taking a big breath for one of her patented screams, when she had noticed something else hiding beneath the computer, something that was also part of her gift. She was almost apoplectic as she found a Cintiq tablet, a drawing device with built-in screen, that was on her ultimate wish list for tools to help her master the digital arts.

“Wow, Mabel!” Dipper marvelled as he absorbed the enormity of the gifts their parents had given them. She stared at the contents of the box on her brother’s lap, and apparently agreed with his sentiment as her scream finally emerged at full volume. She quickly slid her presents off of her lap and lunged to tackle her parents on the sofa. Her mother wiggled out of Mabel’s grip quickly, leaving her husband to Mabel so that she could stand and accept her son’s thankful embrace. “This is so great, Mom. Thank you!” he mumbled happily into his mother’s shoulder.

“Thankyouthankyouthankyou!” squealed Mabel as she crushed her father in a bear hug. The twins switched parents and repeated their thanks.

Their father gave Dipper a hard pat on the back. “Thought you’d like that!” he chuckled, turning his son towards the others and getting Mabel’s attention. “We bought you both Creative Cloud subscriptions and I set up all the applications for you. I also installed all the updates and drivers, and charged up the batteries. You’re both good to go right away!”

“All riiiiiiight! My dad the uber nerd!” cheered Mabel, dancing in glee over to her new computer and opening the lid.

“Yes, yes, Mabel! You’ll have plenty of time for that later,” said their mother, waving her hand downwards and returning to her spot on the sofa with her husband. “Let’s finish up these presents first! Dipper, what’s left under the tree?”

Mabel dropped into the love seat while Dipper leaned down and scooped up the last four gifts. “I shoved these aside. I figured we’d all want to open these last.” He handed his parents the presents they were giving to each other, then sat down beside Mabel with the remaining two. He cast a curious, speculative eye on the gift labelled for him: a heavy package the size of a thick pizza box that Mabel had colorfully wrapped. Then with a proud smile he handed over a plain envelope that was addressed to her from him.

His sister made a singularly unimpressed face, dangling the envelope doubtfully by one of its corners between her index finger and thumb. “I know we agreed that we shouldn’t spend much money on each other, Bro Bro, but it appears I’m drawing the short straw in this gift exchange!” she pouted with a comically protruding bottom lip.

Dipper’s smile only widened. “Don’t worry. I’m pretty sure you’ll like it!”

Mabel’s eyes sparkled. “Oh-kaaaaay brother!” she grumbled playfully. “I guess it’s good to start with low expectations!” She lifted the flap of the envelope and pulled out a folded sheet of plain white paper. It was blank except for a numerical IP network address. Mabel squinted, turned the paper over and found nothing more. She gawked at Dipper in confusion and disappointment. “Whaaaa?!” she blurted.

“Just open up your phone and enter in the address. Make sure your WiFi is connected,” Dipper coached. Mabel yanked out her handset and dutifully punched the numbers into the browser’s address bar. She was instantly presented with a simple white web page, empty except for a single button labelled “Install”. Mabel glanced up warily, and Dipper nodded. “Go ahead, it’s safe. It’s coming from my computer upstairs. You’re going to be installing an app I developed!” he added, happy with anticipation.

Mabel tapped the button and was presented with warnings about installing software from untrusted sources. “‘Untrusted’, huh? You’re not breaking into my phone, are you?” she demanded slyly. At Dipper reassurance, Mabel gamely accepted the multiple warning screens and the installation began. “Merry Christmas, Mabel,” she bemoaned in a terrible imitation of Dipper. “We’ll do really geeky stuff like my dumb Dungeons game. ‘Homework: Mobile Edition!!’” Her brother gave her a friendly nudge. She shoved back with a laugh. “While your sinister app of hacking tomfoolery is doing its thing to my phone, go on and open your gift!”

Dipper began looking on the edges of the bright foil for tape to remove, causing Mabel to huff with impatience. Then with a knowing sidelong glance, he suddenly tore off the entire wrapping in one big rip.

“Yes!” Mabel exclaimed with a huge pump of her fist. “He _can_ be taught!” Their parents chuckled, curious to see what she had given to her brother.

On Dipper’s lap sat a very large and thick book, obviously hand made and just as obviously made with utmost care and skill. The cover of the volume was stitched with soft leather, and then adorned with a patchwork of letters of various fabrics and colors, spelling out the title of the book: “Dipper and Mabel: the Ultimate Scrapbook of How the Mystery Twins Grew Up”.

His eyes widened in admiration and affection. Lifting the cover, Dipper was presented with a detailed chronology of his life with his sister. Beginning with their birth and right up to the present day, Mabel had made a complete history of over seventeen years of events that shaped their lives together. Some photos, drawings, and letters had been pilfered from earlier scrapbooks, others were created new from memories. Page after page of thick parchment were covered with items of memorabilia, all of it was accompanied by anecdotes written in Mabel’s distinctive calligraphy. She had also left spaces everywhere so that Dipper could add his own memories and comments. Finally, there were empty pages at the back of the heavy tome.

Dipper’s face had slowly stretched into an expression of impressed awe. “This is really incredible, Mabel!” he murmured softly. “Wow … It’s just amazing … but, this is as much yours as it is mine! I can’t just keep this!”

“Well I’m entrusting you to take good care of my baby!” She reached over to run an overly-affectionate palm over the book’s cover. “He’s a _good_ scrapbook! He may be about us, but he’s yours!” Mabel cooed. “I mean, it’s hardly finished yet. We’ve got a whole bunch more junk that will need putting in there. You know, before we go off to college next fall.”

For a split second, Dipper’s face betrayed a look of sudden apprehension, which he covered up quickly. Smiling warmly, he leaned over and put an arm around Mabel’s shoulder and squeezed. “You bet I’ll take care of _him_ , Mabel. Thank you, it’s .. so awesome!”

Mabel hugged back. “Yeah, I do awesome pretty darn well, thank you very much!” she replied with a smug grin. But Dipper could also see more in her expression: a sympathetic smile of love and understanding, and he felt a tiny extra squeeze of her fingers on his arm.

Then she glanced back down to her phone. “Whomp! Looks like your app thingy is all done. Let’s see …” Mabel confirmed the completion of the install, then paused as a new icon appeared on her home screen: the app was labelled “The Daily Dip” with an avatar of a silly drawing of Dipper’s face that she’d drawn years before. She gripped her phone hard. “AAAAHHHHHH!!! What’s this?!?” she cried.

“Just tap him,” Dipper said, who was back to looking very satisfied with himself.

Opening the new app, Mabel was presented with a page that was laid out efficiently but tastefully, with an area for a photo and video stream in the middle of the screen, and above that was a scrolling list of comments, quotes, and sage advice. At the bottom was a small space of weird pixels and lines, scrolling left and right in a decidedly future-y manner. Mabel immediately saw that the style of the design was quintessentially Dipper. “Now you can carry ‘me’ on your phone!” Dipper declared proudly. “All the content is hosted on my bedroom computer, and the phone downloads it automatically. It changes the content every day. I manage it all from here,” he said as he pulled out his own phone and he showed her how he would load new text and photos into his server.

She also spotted a different icon on his home screen: this one was a matching comical picture drawn by Mabel, but this was a caricature she had drawn of herself. The app was labelled “The Mabel Report”. “And what is _that?_ ” she asked with amused suspicion.

“This,” he said, “is where _you_ can put some of yourself on _my_ phone, if you want.” Dipper replied, happily showing her his app with the same layout as the one now on her phone. Mabel clapped and shrieked excitedly. “This way, we’ll stay twins, regardless of …”

Dipper’s face dropped and he stopped cold. Then he tried to sound casual. “I mean, we could be in different classes, or hanging out with other friends, or … you know, any other reason we don’t … see each other.” Mabel seemed oblivious to any discomfort as she tackled Dipper and squeezed, all the while making silly noises about her amazing nerdy brother.

“Aw, those are such sweet presents!” their mother exclaimed. Their parents had both finished opening their gifts to one another. She clapped her hands and rubbed them together. “Well, time to start getting the turkey ready for the oven if we’re going to have dinner tonight.” She elbowed her husband and smirked as she stood. “Are you making the bread crumbs, or stuffing them up into the bird?”

He shuddered. “You know I _hate_ doing the stuffing,” he groaned as he joined his wife heading towards the back of the house. “Bread crumbs for me.” Their voices faded as they disappeared around behind the staircase into the kitchen.

The twins watched them leave the room, then Mabel leaned across and lightly kissed her brother. She reached to squeeze Dipper’s hand. “You okay, Dip?”

Dipper smiled nervously. “Sure! Of course! Why wouldn’t I be?”

Mabel squinted dramatically, still smiling. “Don’t give me that! You’ve gone all avoid-y on me. Spill, Bro!”

Suddenly unable to meet her eye, Dipper’s head bowed and he became very interested in examining his socks. But he managed to get his mouth working. “I guess … both of these gifts … I didn’t realize … I wasn’t really thinking about how little time we may have left together.” His hand reached out onto Mabel’s leg, and his shoulders relaxed noticeably as she immediately gripped onto him supportively. “We applied to the same colleges, but until the acceptances come back … we haven’t really talked about what we do if it doesn’t happen like we want it to.” He drew a deep breath. “I know how I feel, but … I’m just a little scared about … about what we really mean to each other, you know?”

For the next few moments, both teens were silent. Then Mabel squeezed Dipper’s hand again. “Wait here a second,” she said meaningfully, and waited for Dipper to look up and see her understanding smile. Walking over to the large picture window, Mabel drew the curtains closed, reducing the ambient light in the room substantially. Then she quickly ran up the stairs, returning seconds later with a device that Dipper hadn’t seen in years.

“My black light?” Dipper asked. “Why do you need …” His question trailed off as it occurred to him what the light was for, and he couldn’t help but feel proud of Mabel and her sneakiness. He looked down at the huge scrapbook, still in his lap, then back to his self-satisfied sister. “You been writing some secret messages?”

“One or two,” she replied craftily, taking her seat back beside Dipper. He opened the book to a random page, an account of a family excursion to Yosemite National Park when they were nine. Mabel switched on her light. Written underneath the regular ink was an entire page of notes in invisible ink. Dipper flipped through the entire scrapbook, revealing private thoughts she wanted only her brother to know. How she always admired how smart he was. How cool it had always been to have a partner in crime, recounting a lot of the mischief they’d gotten into over the years. The moments which made her realize her affection for him was more than she’d realized. The intense happiness he’d brought to her with his love.

Dipper smiled warmly at the book, obviously relishing the hours of reading he would enjoy from it, but knew there was no point getting buried in it now. He began to close the book when Mabel stopped him. “Wait,” she said softly. “Read the first page.”

Opening the front cover, Dipper held the old fluorescent tube over the page. Silently he read the secret message that Mabel had written for him.

 

> _Dipper,_  
>    
>  I want you to always have this scrapbook, and to keep it for as long as you live.
> 
> _This book represents us as we are now in 2016: two kids locked in a crazy life together, in ways that neither one of us can really understand. We’ve always had each other since before we were born, and we’ve never known life without one another. What we are together feels exactly the way I would describe love. Complete and perfect love._
> 
> _Of course, the world may not ever understand or accept what we have. And we have to live in that world. Someday, it might mean that it will be impossible for us to be together. I know you’ve thought about it. I have too. I hate the feeling that this thought brings to me. And how it must make you feel the same._
> 
> _That’s why I’ve made this book. I want you to have a permanent piece of us, and what we are, forever. Something that time and the world can never erase, regardless of what might happen. This is my testimony to you that I cannot fathom any possibilities in this universe that I could ever love anything more than I love you now._
> 
> _I hope that as we complete this scrapbook next summer, we will have many more to create in the future. I want nothing more than to be by your side as we get old and wrinkly. And I will fight like heck to make that happen! You are my soulmate, Dipper. My one and only love. And I belong with you always!_
> 
> _Forever yours,  
>  Mabel_

Dipper’s sleeve caught a tear before it could hit the parchment. He kept his breathing under control, not wanting to set Mabel off as well. He shakily flipped the light off, closed the scrapbook, and set it on an end table. His sister’s eyes were shining as he met her gaze in the darkened room..

“I was … I was going to save this for later, but …” he stammered, trying to keep his composure. “There’s more to my gift, too. It’s … well, it’s a little nerdy, but also kind of …can y- can you just take out your phone again? Open up my app?”

Mabel sniffled, then brought up “The Daily Dip”, holding her phone with an unsteady hand so both of them could see the screen. Dipper swallowed and wiped his face again. “You see this scrambled part down here?” he asked, pointing to the seemingly randomly moving lines on lower part of the screen. “This is actually an encrypted message system. It lets us send anything we want to each other, and even if someone takes your phone from your hand they can’t read it. There’s a message waiting that I sent before I came down for breakfast this morning.”

A tiny smile of amusement formed on Mabel’s lips as she observed another piece of Dipper’s paranoid tendency. She looked at him sideways. “Soooo … how do _I_ read it?”

Dipper’s amused smile mimicked hers. “With these,” he replied, pulling a box from his pocket and opening it. Inside were two simple but elegant ceramic rings, one gleaming white and the other a glossy black. Mabel made a small, teary gasp. “These are called NFC rings, and they have a simple computer chip inside them. I’ve already paired the white one to your phone, and the black one to mine.” His sister bit her bottom lip, her emotions about to burst from seeing the sweetness and adorable dorkiness of this gift.

He handed the white band to Mabel, and showed her where to position it on the back of her handset. She held it in her fingers on the spot, then watched fascinated at the random lines coalesced into readable text.

 

> _Mabel, today I’m sending you this message, one that requires a ring that you can wear on your right hand._
> 
> _But down the road, I promise that somehow I will deliver another message. It will require me to give you a different ring, one that you’ll wear on your LEFT hand._
> 
> _Maybe we can’t ever make it official. But this will have to be enough for now:_
> 
> _Will you be by my side, and be my one and only Mabel forever? Will you make me the happiest guy alive?_
> 
> _I love you so much!  
>  Dipper_

Mabel was weeping quietly now. When she reached for a tissue, she pulled the ring away from the phone, causing the text to become scrambled again. Quickly she repositioned the band in place, tearfully reading the message again. She rapidly swiped a message back and hit Send.

Dipper’s phone buzzed, and he opened “The Mabel Report” as fast as he could. Holding his own ring on the back of his phone, Mabel’s return message emerged:

 

> _of course i will you goober! i love you too!_

A sobbing giggle burst from Dipper’s chest. Holding on to one another’s quivering hands, their eyes locked hungrily. Lips parted and panting lightly in short, uneven breaths, their faces close together. Both of them knew what they had to do next. They leaned their heads forward, eyes fluttering closed …

… as their parents emerged from the back of the house into the living room.

“-because it’s not very well known that more people have ham than turkey at Christmas, at least in-” their father was saying. He stopped short as he looked to the occupants of the love seat. Their mother also stared at her children, their lips a fraction of an inch apart.

Dipper and Mabel froze in place, turning their heads only enough to cast desperate, fearful expressions at their parents.

Crossing his arms, their father harrumphed, and turned with a raised eyebrow to the woman beside him. She glared back at her husband for a second.

Then with great sigh, she threw her hands into the air. “Oh, go ahead!” she groaned, a mix of resignation and tired exasperation in her voice. She pivoted and headed back towards the kitchen. “It’s not like we’ve ever been able to stop them!”

A reluctant nod of approval from their father later, Mabel tackled Dipper, shoving him back while smothering him with kisses. Dipper recovered quickly, running his hands over her back and hair with passion and moaning as he and his sister tried to fuse their mouths together.

Their father had started to follow his wife to the kitchen, but listening to three seconds of teenage exuberance was all it took to convince him to choose a different course of action. He leaned his head back into the living room. “Alright, you two! Upstairs _now_ , and … well … do what you’ve got to do!” he ordered authoritatively. Mabel climbed awkwardly off of Dipper, both of them beet red. “Your grandparents will be coming in a couple of hours, and you can’t be all worked up when they get here.”

“Dad, I’m sorry-” Dipper began.

Mabel grabbed him by the hand and pulled him to the stairs. “Dip, come on!” she mumbled, trying to hide her blushing face from her father with her other hand.

“It’s just …” Dipper continued over his shoulder. “We know we’re not supposed to do anything outside our bedrooms!” The twins disappeared from view as they sprinted around the landing halfway up the staircase. “But we kind of got a little-” The remainder of the apology was lost as their father heard Dipper make a “MMFFFT!!” noise, followed seconds later by the sound of Mabel’s bedroom door closing.

* * *

Shaking his head, their father walked slowly back to the kitchen, where he found his wife furiously chopping carrots. “I sent them upstairs,” he said soberly.

The rapid slicing of vegetables continued uninterrupted. “It’s bad enough that we allow them to … _at all!_ ” his wife grumbled. “But downstairs, when they _know_ we don’t want to hear or see them doing any of that … “ The knife in her hand suddenly clattered to the counter and she pressed her palms to her forehead.

Her husband gently took her in his arms. Very slowly, her arms relaxed and she returned his embrace, burying a petulant sniffle into his shoulder. “I’ve tried … I’m _trying_ to accept this! I … I thought _for sure_ that this was just a phase, that this would be over a long time ago … Didn’t you?”

“Yeah … but maybe we should’ve known better, after they took off on us last Christmas,” replied her husband softly while stroking her back. “We did what we thought was best, to give them time to move on from each other without forcing them … and now they seem closer than ever.”

“What do we _do_ now?” she mumbled. “How do we fix this?”

He shook his head. “What _can_ we do?” he asked in return. “We’ve raised two capable, head-strong kids, kids who are almost adults. They were willing to risk their lives last year, almost freezing to death, because they were scared we wouldn’t let them be together. If I know them, Dipper’s already got detailed plans in place if they need to run away again, and Mabel’s got the savvy for them to stay hidden if need be.” He held his wife tighter. “Besides, even if we could keep them apart and safe for now, would that really accomplish anything? You think we can _force_ them to find other people to start going out with?”

She pulled her head back to look her husband in the eye. “Last year, I would never have thought you would have felt this way about this.”

“What can I say, I’m pragmatic” he shrugged. “When they were missing last year, after going through their email and texts, and reading Mabel’s diary … it was _obvious_ how they feel for each other.” He stepped back and vacantly looked out the window, his jaw set. “If I thought for a _second_ that their relationship was in any way abusive, I’d stop it immediately.” He looked back to his wife. “But _look_ at them, Honey! They’ve somehow figured this out! They are a perfectly happy and functional brother and sister, and are each other’s best friend. They make it work in a … _normal_ way … everywhere else, as long as they know they have each other completely here in this house.” He paused for a moment, scratching an itch on his neck. “I think back to when I was seventeen, and you know what? Not only do they have a better sibling relationship than I had with either of my sisters, they have a _far_ healthier romantic relationship than I managed with any girl at that age, as well!”

His wife stared at the vegetables on the counter in frustrated resignation. “Yes … the same for me, too …” She wiped her mouth roughly with her palm. “Baby, l _know_ they love each other, and they’ll _always_ protect each other, and … I suppose they’re _good_ for each other … It’s like …”

“… it’s like they’re _meant_ for each other,” he finished softly.

She exhaled heavily. “When you put it that way, I guess it’s pretty pointless to try to ‘fix’ this, isn’t it?”

He lifted her face with his finger under her chin. “They’re great kids, Honey. They’ll find their way, and they have each other. And when they decide what they finally are going to be to each other, I think it makes sense for them to know that they can both count on us to be there for them, as well.”

They melted into a comforting embrace again. “You’re right, Baby,” she whispered. “And I love you.”

“I love you too, Worry-wort,” he murmured back.

They held one another for a long moment until she fondly shoved her husband towards a bag of potatoes. “Alright, enough of this! Start peeling while I finish the carrots!” He emptied the bag into a bowl as she picked up her knife, poised to begin slicing again.

Then she paused and looked up. “Still, I’m wondering … Their gifts to each other were cute, but I didn’t see what made them so fired up. I mean, even though we’ve known what goes on, they’ve never let us _see_ them do anything like that … well, since last Christmas.” She raised an eyebrow. “What do you think set them off like that this morning?”

Her husband mumbled an “I dunno” noise, then began rinsing the potatoes under the tap. She shrugged as well and continued chopping.

* * *

Late that afternoon, the dining room was filled with the sounds and smells of a feast. The Pines family was hosting a small, cheerful Christmas meal for seven, with Mr Pines’ parents and Mrs Pines’ unmarried brother Steve coming as guests.

Sherman Pines had missed the rolls as they were passed around. The bowl had stopped in front of his grandson across the table.

“Would you please pass the bread, Mason?” he asked politely.

The boy smiled shyly at the rare use of his formal name and grasped the rim of the bowl. His energetic sister, sitting beside him, laughed and also reached out to snatch it. They grinned happily at one another, then together passed the rolls.

He returned the smile warmly and thanked them. They were growing up to be a fine young man and young woman, he thought as they quietly giggled at a private joke. But … he noticed something odd.

“Excuse me, kids,” he asked. Mabel and Dipper looked up to their grandfather. “I’m afraid I’m not used to the new customs of you young people. When did _that_ change?” he asked, motioning towards the teenagers’ hands.

Mabel’s mouth became a flat line and she quickly placed her hands in her lap under the table. Dipper didn’t clue in as fast. “When did _what_ change, Grandpa Shermie?” he asked with his fork full of dressing..

His grandfather pointed directly at his hand. “Well in our day, people never put a band on their left ring finger until they were engaged or married. Both of you have rings on your left hands!” He chuckled. “I must be so behind the times!” As he sliced open the warm bread, he was oblivious to the momentary wide-eyed stares being directed towards suddenly-silent twins from their parents.

Mabel slowly pulled her hands up, and their parents noticed for the first time the new rings on their children’s left ring fingers: white for Mabel and black for Dipper. The twins’ faces wore expressions that managed to be both ecstatic and guilty at the same time.

Their parents caught each other’s eyes, and sighed as one.

**Author's Note:**

> So when I first posted this story about a year ago, I wanted it to be a surprise that this fic is a sequel to “[Exposure](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6788485)”, my story that I published the previous Christmas. It was a cute reveal near the end that this story and "Exposure" were actually in the same AU. 
> 
> But now, I am starting to write a new multi-chapter story that follows after this one, and it is beneficial if you've read both of the previous stories. So my little twist is now kind of messed up because I've lumped it into a series with "Exposure". Sorry about that, for anyone who hadn't read this before. Hope you liked it anyways!


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